


On Your Knees

by bluesey182



Category: The Folk of the Air - Holly Black
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-10 11:02:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19904674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluesey182/pseuds/bluesey182
Summary: Inspired by a headcanon I saw on tumblr by @florafey where Cardan likes Jude to sit in his lap





	On Your Knees

**Author's Note:**

> I also posted this on tumblr a while ago so if you want to follow me there I'm @bluesey-182. I hope you enjoy!

Cardan thought that sometimes Jude forgot she was no longer seneschal. Even as Queen–a role she’s filled for over a year now–she still moved about the throne room taking messages from guards like she would before she was crowned. When she sat in her throne she vibrated with a nervous energy, always on alert for a threat to the crown and watching over him like he might die at any minute. At the very least, Cardan was grateful that she no longer looked half-hopeful at the prospect of him keeling over. Still, he wished she could relax, knowing how much she exhausted herself every day.

Already tonight she had left her throne to hurry off to some other matter several times while Cardan stayed isolated from the nights’ festivities. He was morbidly drunk and wanted nothing more than to spend time with his wife. She, however, was otherwise occupied.

He looked up from where he was resting his chin in his palm to see Jude walking up the steps to the thrones. She was beautiful, as always, in her gold satin dress. Before the party she had let him put makeup on her face and if he had smeared some gold glitter in other places in the process then, well, that was an accident. One she didn’t mind. Now, walking up the steps, she gave him a tired smile. Without thinking, Cardan reached an arm out and looped it around her waist before giving her a gentle pull. A small noise of exclamation left her as Cardan guided her into his lap where she settled with a small laugh.

“There’s my Queen,” he purred by her ear. She rolled her eyes but gave him that wicked smile of hers. He felt himself melting into the throne beneath them.

Jude opened her mouth, likely to bite something back, when the sound of a clearing throat interrupted her.

“Excuse me, Your Majesty,” a stumpy faerie man said from the bottom of the dias.

With every intention of ignoring the faerie, Cardan began tracing patterns across Jude’s arm, following the lines with his eyes as he felt her hair rise with goosebumps. But the man cleared his throat again and Cardan’s idle concentration was broken.

“Speak,” Jude said.

“Actually,” the man said, “I was hoping to speak to the King.”

Beneath his fingers Cardan felt Jude tense ever so slightly. Even now she struggled and fought for every ounce of respect she deserved as Queen and yet…

And yet sometimes it still wasn’t enough.

Cardan felt his blood boil.

“And why can you not discuss the matter with your Queen?” His voice was edged in ice, though his tone was mild. He watched with satisfaction as the faeries face drained of color.

“I, uh,” the faerie stammered.

“Do you not respect your Queen?” As he spoke, Cardan resumed drawing invisible lines along Jude’s arms, refusing to dignify the faerie before them with his gaze.

“I–”

“No matter. We could always just banish you.” With that declaration Cardan finally looked at the faerie through his lashes and smirked at the tension in the other man’s body. “What do you think, dearest?” This he addressed to Jude.

That wicked grin split her face. “That might be a bit harsh. Maybe the tower of forgetting is more fitting?”

At this point the faerie’s face had drained of all its color. He continued to sputter nonsense before finally falling to his knees before them in a bow. “My apologies, my Queen.”

“You’re dismissed,” Cardan ordered with finality.

As the faerie disappeared back into the crowd, Jude looked over her shoulder at Cardan where he still ran his fingers along her arms.

“You get too much satisfaction in that,” she said.

“Hm? And what would that be?”

“Making them bow to me.”

“Well I must say, my sweet villain, it’s not as satisfying as being on my own knees before you, but it’ll do.” He looked into her eyes and saw a flame come to life in them.


End file.
